Lüneburg's cyclists are used to having a car sit next to them, says Jürgen Kramer from RSC Lüneburg: tourists leaning out of the window, a map in their hand, wrinkles on their forehead. They want to know: "Excuse me, where's the way to the heath?"
It's a bit crazy: the largest heathland areas in Central Europe are well hidden. Which is no tragedy for cyclists, because the Lüneburg Heath would be a scenic delight even without a single heather bush. Barely used and finely tarmaced roads lead through a gently undulating composition of red and green: green the mixed forests, the lush meadows, the fields on the Geestrand, red the often thatched brick houses and the small half-timbered churches. Jürgen Kramer likes the fact that there is always a fresh breeze blowing. Of course, it's great when we're pushed by the tailwind on a slightly downhill stretch and hurtle along at almost 50 kilometres an hour. But when the wind blows from the front at the end of the tour to such an extent that the many harmless waves mutate into small mountain climbs, our understanding of Kramer's windy passion fades.
Apart from the wind, cyclists will hardly find any natural opponents. On a racing bike, you can only make it to just over a hundred metres above sea level, even though the 169-metre-high Wilseder Berg rises into the sky in the middle of Germany's oldest nature reserve - the highest elevation in the North German Plain.
These routes can be found below as PDF files and as GPS data for download:
- Tour 1: Around the Wilseder Berg (119.6 km)
- Tour 2: Lüneburg - Uelzen - Lüneburg (115.6 km)
GPS DATA: TOUR offers the tour data for free download. You can download the tracks in GPX format directly onto a GPS device or view them on your computer in Google Earth or Google Maps.
